The vegetable garden at the UF/IFAS Extension Leon County Demonstration Gardens is maintained by Master Gardener VegHeadz. The garden and the team were founded in 2011 with the goal of passing on information on research based north Florida gardening methods to the community. Twenty plus Master Gardeners tend to the garden every Wednesday, where weeding, planting, building, mulching, trellising, conversing and much more goes on.

The garden is open during business hours every weekday. A guided tour can be arranged by contacting the Extension Office. In addition, an Open House is held each Spring with Extension Agents and Master Gardeners on hand to answer questions. The garden is grown with organic methods, and includes conventional garden rows, raised beds, square foot gardens, container gardens, and hydroponic gardens, featuring both annual and perennial vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, and companion plants. Since it is a demonstration garden, the team is constantly trying out new methods and concepts and each year brings new learning experiences. The soil has been built up the past few years using mulch, compost, manure, cover crops and fertilizing post soil testing. Weeds have been controlled using solarization, black weed cloth, and pulling weeds mechanically. Produce from the garden is donated to Second Harvest and other charitable organizations every week.

The VegHeadz blog can be found at http://northfloridavegheadz.blogspot.com/, where it is frequently updated as to what is new in the garden, and is always a pleasure to read.

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